ISSN: 2471-9315
Mark Campbell*
Over the last two decades, the Department of Health commissioned three National Research Teams (Southampton, London and Edinburgh) with a brief to investigate if protein residuals is a concern on reprocessed re-usable surgical instruments through a washer disinfector. All three research teams developed a system to measure residual proteins on surgical instruments and all came to the same conclusion, that protein residuals were indeed present on processed instruments, in particular prion protein which has been proven to be extremely difficult to remove with current wash processes and chemistries. On completion of the research, the Advisory Committee on Dangerous Pathogens (ACDP) Guidance was updated, which in turn pre-empted the update to HTM / WHTM 01-01.